Translation, philosophy and deconstruction

Abstract Translatability in a traditional sense assumes that the original meaning of the text can be determined and re‐presented in translation. It is built on the philosophical premise that language is a transparent mediating system. The deconstructive approach displaces philosophical discourse within a general textuality which takes literary language as the model for all reading. Characterising literary language in terms of the differential signifying processes of figurative language, de‐construction criticises understandings of translation in terms of communication, reception or representation. Instead, translation is characterised as untranslatable metaphor.